The present invention relates to an operating unit for handling moving products.
Though employable in any technical field for performing one or more operations on moving products or objects in general, the present invention is particularly suitable for use in the confectionary industry, for "fantailing" the wrappings of products, especially sweets and similar, fed substantially continuously along a given path.
For this reason, the following description refers specifically, though purely by way of example, to a fantail forming unit of the type comprising a wrapping closing station; a feed device with a given number of transportation heads for feeding the closing station with respective products having a wrapping with at least one open end portion; and a closing device located at the closing station, for fantailing the open end portion of each wrapping, and comprising at least one tool consisting of a mechanical hand revolving about its axis.
Operating units of the aforementioned type are known to comprise step operated feed devices, the transportation heads of which are fed successively and in steps through the closing station where, in the event the wrappings present only one open end portion, a single operating hand successively engages the respective open end portions of the wrappings as the respective transportation heads are arrested at the closing station. In the event both the end portions of each wrapping are open, the closing station obviously presents two opposed operating hands.
A major drawback of known operating units of the aforementioned type is that, by virtue of being step operated, the operating speed of the units is relatively slow and totally inadequate for the wrapping machines currently available on the market.
In an attempt to overcome the above drawback, operating units have been devised featuring continuously operated feed devices, each transportation head of which presents a closing element moving with the head and in turn featuring at least one operating hand.
While enabling relatively fast operating speeds, continuously operated units of the above type are invariably expensive and unreliable due to the complex mechanical design of the feed devices and the number of components involved. Moreover, by virtue of the complex mechanical design of the feed devices, the areas in which the wrappings are actually fantailed are rendered substantially inaccessible, and any change in format economically unfeasible. In other words, continuously operated units of the above type are not only expensive and unreliable, but also provide solely for large-scale or mass production of only one type of product.